Ammon News - The Minister of Water and Irrigation, Muhammad Najjar, said that Jordan is one of the countries most impacted by climate change and decreasing precipitation, which has been compounded by a fivefold increase in demand for water.

He further noted that the combined annual flow of the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers has dropped from 1.2 billion cubic meters to less than 200 million cubic meters.

These remarks were made at a workshop hosted by the ministry on Sunday in Amman in the presence of representatives from Germany's KfW Development Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, and other international donors to kick off feasibility studies for a project to decrease water loss in the King Abdullah Canal in the Jordan Valley and improve the efficiency of distribution systems.

The minister emphasized that the project will help provide more water for municipal needs and increase agricultural water use efficiency, particularly given that water loss in the canal is 25.4 percent, with an estimated 13.7 percent going to illegal uses.

Najjar expressed gratitude to donors, in particular KfW Bank and USAID, for helping the water sector realize its vision of developing the canal, which irrigates 3,500 acres of land and accounts for 70 percent of the Kingdom's agricultural output.

For her part, Secretary General of the Jordan Valley Authority Manar Mahasneh explained that the project entails the rehabilitation of 53 kilometers of canal funded by KfW and 12 kilometers funded by USAID.

She went on to say that the project would also update the "SCADA" system used to run and manage the canal's infrastructure, as well as develop cutting-edge electronic monitoring and protection systems, and supply the necessary systems and equipment to keep the canal running.

Mahasneh mentioned that the feasibility studies should be finished by midway through the following year and that the entire project, worth around 120 million euros, should be finished in three years.

According to Mahasneh, the project is in line with plans for climate adaptation and will allow the authority to redistribute water, curtail unauthorized uses, lower operating and maintenance expenses, lessen evaporation, protect the environment and nature, and improve public safety along the canal and inside of it.